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Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Dear Dominique:Happy 3 months Gobber! Yes, you know have joined the ranks of having a nickname in this household. Originally it was Gobbler as you eat so much, but it turned into Gobber from Mommy & Violet watching How to Train Your Dragon on repeat lately. Never mind that you’re 14 lbs already, so Gobber it is.

I'm so amazed at how fast you are growing these days. You are completely out of your 0-3 month clothes and already trying to stretch out some of the new 3-6 month sleepers! Your grins and smiles come way more these days, you’re starting to make more noises and you’re a pretty happy baby overall. And you’re still an awesome sleeper, as we put you to bed between 8-9pm and you don’t wake up until 4-5am, unless it’s been a bad night.

I think one of the favourite parts of your day is when Violet comes into your room in the morning to see if you’re awake and the huge smile you give to her. You are so adored by her and she tries to help you whenever possible, whether it’s giving you the soother, lots of hugs and kisses, or singing and dancing around you to keep you entertained. The other favourite part of your day is when it’s bath night. You and Violet have a bath together in the big tub (and have since you came home from the hospital), which brings out more toothless smiles as you splash Violet and she tries to tell you “No Splashing Donaneek!” Love it.

Although this evening was really rough for you. I made sure that you were all fed up and “milk drunk” before we put you to bed, but I'm guessing that something was wrong, as you fought sleep like crazy. At one point, you were screaming your head off and Daddy came into your room to take you from me and try to calm you down. You went bat-shit crazy and screamed your little lungs out as best you could. Daddy sat down in the rocking chair, wrapped his arms tightly around you so that you couldn't flail around and rocked you back and forth. You gave some good screams, but Daddy just kept rocking you to calm you down. Eventually you did go to sleep. According to Daddy, you’re really strong as you were fighting him quite a bit. Oh my dear girl. Here’s hoping that you sleep well tonight.

I've loved watching you grow these past 3 months and can’t wait for the adventure to continue.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

I've been itching to do a random Day in the Life lately, but never really got around to it. Thursday evening, I decided that Friday would be a Day in the Life day. And it worked! I haven't done one since before Dom was born (sometime in 2013 was the last one I did), so it was nice to be able to include Dom this time.

Photos:

Words:4am - Dom wakes me up for a full feeding and diaper changes. Best part of it? The smiles I get. Love them.5:30am - Keith’s alarm goes off, I keep on sleeping.6:30am - Violet wake me up because she peed her bed. Get her cleaned up and changed, sprinkle baking soda on the wet spot on the floor (yes, she still sleeps on the floor, and has since before Christmas) and put her back to sleep. Decide to stay up, so I start a load of laundry, change my clothes, grab my tea and water and start on next weeks grocery list.8am - Hear Dominique starting to wake up. Quickly switch the laundry around and go tend to Dom. She’s not too happy for some odd reason and kept wanting to scream in my face about something. Did manage to feed her a bit, but then she started protesting, so she went for some quiet time in her swing while I got Violet up for the day.8:45am - Violet all done her breakfast and Dominique starts freaking out again. Manage to swaddle her tightly and let her have her soother while I sit with her in the rocking chair, trying to calm her down enough so that she can feed. It works and within minutes, she’s breastfeeding peacefully.9:15am - Dom’s all done her feeding, so I get us all packed up in the car so that I can drop Violet off at my sister’s place while I take Brody (my nephew) grocery shopping to work on number recognition. I’ve been schooling him about 3 times a week so that he can keep up with Grade 1 when he goes back to school in the fall.10:30am - Drop off Brody from grocery shopping. He did really good at number recognition, but I think that I’ll be doing this regularly with him for the rest of the summer. Let Violet play with her cousins a bit more before heading home as Dom was starting to demand a feeding again.11:45am - Finally got Dom fed and down for her nap. She was trying to protest again. Almost thinking that she’s going through a growth spurt as she’s been getting really fussy when being wrapped and trying to feed for the last couple days.12:15pm - Have lunch with Violet of home made breakfast burritos and strawberries. Switch laundry again and then make some No-Bake Energy Bites with Violet. Also give Violet’s bedroom a quick vacuum to clean up the baking soda from this morning.1:15pm - Violet down for her nap. Sit down at the kitchen table with my laptop and tea and start working on journal entries and reading blog posts. And tell Violet numerous times that it’s time for sleep. Don’t think she’s tired at all.2:15pm - Dom starts squawking again, so I go to feed her and read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone while feeding. And tell Violet again to go to sleep. Think she’s trying to boycott today’s naptime. Give Dom her feeding and diaper change and then back to trying to catch up on journaling.3pm - Violet didn’t sleep at all, and it’s time for her to get up. Why do I feel like I didn’t get any quiet time? She does some colouring while I upload photos and tidy up the kitchen a bit.3:30pm - Keith’s home and Violet is happy about that and then proceeds to steal his chips. Food thief.4pm - Start making Perogy Casserole for supper, and Violet insists on “supervising” me. I think it’s her way of spending one-on-one time with me that doesn’t involve Dom, for now. And I love it. And while supper is in the oven, we work in one of her sticker books.4:45pm - Dom wakes up for a feeding and diaper change. And she’s completely happy to sit in her chair after she’s done while I finish getting supper ready.5:15pm - Sit down for supper, wash dishes, tidy up kitchen and feed Dominique again while Violet takes almost an hour to finish her supper. Toe dragger, that one is. Dom also chose this time to make a great big fuss about feeding (guessing tired again), and once she was fed, she passed out and I put her down for a nap.6pm - Keith suggests our family walk just as I sit down to play Super Mario Wii. And I’m up for it. Get Violet ready to go and grab Dom from the crib and put in the stroller. Violet does OK on our walk down to the Library park so that she can play and me and Keith get our walking in. But it starts raining, so we made a made dash home, halfway across town.8pm - Get home from our walk, soaking wet. Give both girls a bath, which they share together, and it cheers up Dom quite a bit. Give Dom her last feeding of the day while Violet continues to play in the tub. Dom falls asleep in my arms and stays asleep while I wait for Keith to be done playing his game. Violet gets herself out of the bathtub and dressed while she waits for her night-snack.8:45pm - Dom in bed and do bedtime routine with Violet, which includes brushing teeth, reading a story (Pinkie Pie’s Spooky Dream), getting Daddy to “chase” her into bed and prayers.9pm - Both girls out in no time and I quickly run out to grab some munchies and drop off something at Keith’s Aunt’s place while Keith stays home. Once I get home, I grab myself something to drink and watch 2 episodes of House M.D. on Netflix with Keith while we unwind.11:45pm - Done watching TV, quickly fold the leftover laundry from earlier and journal a bit before bedtime.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s StonePlaying Ingress with Keith on the iPhone.Watching 7th season of House M.D. I can only watch during nap time or in the evening, and then it’s only 1-2 episodes at a time.TryingNo-Bake Energy Bites. Yummy!Cooking more new recipesEating/Snacking all the time. It takes a lot to breastfeed around the clock!Drinking whatever I can get my hands on, but trying to make it more water.Scrapping last week’s PL layoutDoing lots of catch-up journalingGoing to a couple parties this weekend (bridal shower, birthday party)Loving that Dominique is getting more aware of everything.Hating the tantrums from Violet. 2-year-olds I tell you.Enjoying the quiet time I get with Keith when we can get it.Thinking of doing some serious de-cluttering/purgingHoping (for) Keith to get a new job soon. It’s much need for both our sanities and stress levels.Listening (to) Elise Blaha Cripe’s pod casts “Elise Gets Crafty”Smelling the flowers with Violet.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

I'm really loving my remaining grandparents that I have these days. I only have my Meme & Pepe left (my French grandparents on my Mom's side), after my Grandma died in 2012 and I never met my paternal grandfather as he died when my Dad was 11. So every time we go down there, I'm very grateful that I still have them, even when my Meme's gossiping drives me up the walls.

What's even more special about this is that Violet has been asking to go see Meme & Pepe now. It's usually when my Mom stops by the house, and Violet comes up to me asking "Pepe?" And when we're there, she's constantly following Pepe around and just being her joyful self. My grandparents are in their 80's, so I'm very grateful that Violet and Dominique get this time with their great-grandparents.

When we went down there this morning, we ended up being outside about 95% of the time that we were there. Violet had a blast running around, especially when I brought out the soccer ball for her to play with. A couple minutes after I gave it to her, my Pepe came out of the house and started kicking it around with her. And I got this gem of a video....

I love it. I love seeing my Pepe play with her. I love hearing her shrieks of joy and that huge grin that takes up her entire face. I love that she keeps going back for more and more and more. And I love that he's so willing to play with her and kick the ball around.

Thank you Pepe, for being such an awesome great-grandpa. Love you so much.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

I've been keeping my layouts really simple lately, although I'm hoping to do some more embellishing with upcoming layouts. I have to plan when I'm going to be working on Project Life, which is mainly during the girls' afternoon nap. But then my bed calls for me and I end up sleeping as well. Thankfully, once the girls' are in bed in the evening, I can usually have 2-3 hours of quiet, but then I try to spend it with Keith. Balancing priorities.

Again, I've been using the Messy Weekly Lines to mark the week, which I like a lot. It's nice because I can use a scenic photo or one that doesn't have a lot of "stuff" on there instead of using a Title Card. And it looks good too!

Why yes! I did catch Dominique smiling. And she's so full of them these days.

Week 23(June 1-7)

Again, lots of family time. I love that I get to be a SAHM (stay at home Mom), because it enables me to catch routines of everyday and watch my girls grow up (way too fast though!).

By the way, notice that both Violet and Dominique kind of sleep the same way, all stretched out? Definitely my girls. And yes, Violet fell asleep reading Green Eggs and Ham, using her Teddy Bear as a bookmark. A girl after my own heart.

The bonus about this week was that I was finally cleared to start riding horses again. Although it's nice to be able to ride again, it's not the same. My own horse died 2 years ago and I'm not keen on getting another one. Life is busy right now with 2 kids and horses are way too expensive for us. I was lucky to have my horse for 18 years, but I'm not looking to get back into it again. My Dad had a horse for me if I want to ride and Violet wanted to see Papa and the horses, so it was nice excuse to be able to ride again, but it's something I won't be doing very often.

Anyway, I digress.

I'm hoping to get the rest upload and blogged by the end of the week and then start working on some series or something for this blog. I like that I've been doing my PL spreads on here, but I'm feeling almost a "push" to start regularly blogging again, mainly about life and motherhood. Hoping to get something off the ground soon.

"Week Twenty" is from Messy Weekly Lines and the date is font Sunday Comics. Yellow journal card is from PL Baby Girl Kit. Black and White journal card is from the PL Midnight Kit. "Love It" flair is from Two Peas in a Bucket (who, sadly, are closed now). The "#<3 a="" brush="" digital="" from="" href="http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/supplies/product_info.php/products_id/18039" is="" target="_blank" this="">Heart Happy3>
. I was creative enough to spread it across two 3x4's and have it positioned perfectly for cutting it. Yeah!

I used my Pink Sharpie Paint Pen for the upper left photo. And it worked out pretty good! Geo tag is from Studio Calico, journal card is from PL Midnight and the digital stamp is from Embracing the Everyday.

Oh, and lots of cuddles, as you can tell here. Dom's finally been wanting to cuddle when she's tired, which makes me and Keith very happy. And Violet's always happy to see her in the morning as well.

Week 21 (May 18-24)

Lots of family time together this week. Due to so many photos, I had to use an insert, which is a Design A cut in half.
"Week Twenty-One" is from Messy Weekly Lines. Think I'll be sticking with those for the rest of the year, as it's a nice way to get an extra photo in there, especially if it's a scenery one. The font is Brick by Boring Brick. The filler card is a digital stamp from Ali Edwards called Embracing the Everyday and the journal card is from PL Midnight. The hearts are from Studio Calico.

More cute photos of Dom. She's growing up so fast, I can't resist taking photos of her these days! The <3 a="" digital="" family="" from="" href="http://www.designerdigitals.com/digital-scrapbooking/supplies/product_info.php/products_id/15566%7B1%7D1%7B8%7D8" is="" stamp="" target="_blank">Family Sentiment Boxes3>
and the flair is from Two Peas.
Keep an eye out for upcoming PL blog posts!